Better late than never
by Current of fantasy
Summary: The had promised to keep in touch, but then Jason and piper moved to CHB, Annabeth and Percy started college in California, Hazel and Frank as the leaders Camp Jupiter and even Leo went back to Texas. Everyone just…. broke apart, moved on. Years later they reunite again, but will things be the same? Rated T just in case :)
1. Hazel I

Better late than never:

**Hazel I**

**Hazel felt her pocket heavy** as she walked to the post center. The day was truly beautiful; the sun shined making the water in the San Francisco bay look like a million diamonds. She turned the street and faced her favorite bakery, the air smelled like a mixture of oranges and sea water; she stopped for a muffin hoping it will calm her nerves.

She still remembered the first time she saw the bay; it was in an ice cream afternoon with her brother Nico. A few weeks after he had brought her from the underworld, they had shadowed traveled to this little _gelato_ store near the pier because she was having a bad time adjusting to her new life. Nico was trying to teach her some Italian to distract her, trying to comfort her.

_Wow_ that seemed like a million years ago.

A honk from a ferry boat brought her back to reality; she finished her muffin and continued her way to the post station. Walking, deep in thought, she remembered her life back then, when she was a regular at camp Jupiter; the war games, the feasts with the abundance horns and the annoying _Lares_, just hanging around with his friends after the war. A smiled appeared in his face, things were so different now. 10 years later.

_Yeaaah_, the war had sure united them more than ever back then and in the following year they had been as thick as thieves' all living together as best friends helping each other recover from the battle and the destructor of their homes. But after that everyone just…. _broke apart_, moved on.

The had promised to keep in touch, but then Jason and piper moved to _CHB_, Annabeth and Percy started college in California to be near Camp Jupiter and even Leo went back to Texas. She still sometimes spoke to piper and Annabeth, brief phone talks on birthdays or an occasionally iris message. And of course her brother Nico came to visit her on weekends and the holidays; he had started working on Italy in some old family business and was no longer the skinny and gloomy son of Hades.

She had chosen to stay at camp Jupiter with Frank, supporting him as the new praetor. And sure had been the right choice. The whole camp responsibility had rested in his arms, after a mysterious desertion from Reyna (who she had a letter for too), but he surprisingly managed the charge very well and had already been reelected once.

But as the time passed everyone just realized that for having the normal lives they always wanted, safe from monsters and weird mist tricks, they had to live forever in camp or slowly start forget their "mythical" lives. Guess what everybody chose.

Hazel saw a glimpse of the building that was the post office, with its classic windows and ripped red paint. She didn't even know if it still was functioning, it was 2025 after all, but she decided to give it a shot. She checked that she still had the 5 letters written for her old friends and confirmed the directions Annabeth had gave her on a brief email. She entered the building and reached for the only desk that remained open. An old lady attended her with a quizzical expression. Sure, if it was an odd thing to send a letter at 2015; even more know 10 years later. But she didn't knew how to reach her friends anymore, a letter was a nice classic detail, personal and yet left the option of rejecting without the awkwardness, and it sure will be a surprise for all of them.

So Hazel sent the letters trusting that they would arrive to their destinies, and with the slightest hope of a reunion of old best friends, she left the building.


	2. Jason II

**Jason II**

**Jason looked in the mirror** one last time before going downstairs; he adjusted his tie and smoothed his khaki pants. The smell of pancakes and bacon filled the apartment. Piper was waiting for him in the kitchen bar with the breakfast served in her cute bunny pajamas.

"Ready for another day Mr. Grace?"- She said with a charming smile- "you look very cute with a tie".

"Ohh look who´s in a good humor"- he said reaching to kiss piper´s forhead- "Actually I'm a little nervous, today is my first evaluation".

"I'm sure you´ll be fine, everybody loves you at the university"- piper said with a slight of charm speak.

"Don't you dare to use charm speak on me" - He said playfully and took a bite of a bacon strip.

A few years after he left Camp Jupiter to go to _CHB, _both piper and he decided that it was time for a fresh star for them, so after refusing Tristan´s McLean offer of coming back to California and having a luxury condo in Malibu, they moved out from camp and started searching for jobs. At first it was hard, adjusting from a life in practically a magical kid's camp to live in a huge city like New York, with completely new routines and risks (who knew NY streets were so aggressive). But now after 2 years of living by their own, Piper was starting a career as an anchor in a very important news chain and he had recently accepted a new job as a world and art history teacher in the NY University. He never thought teaching will be his thing, but he had discovered that it was very similar to be a praetor in camp Jupiter; he instructed people and helped them with their futures and plus he still got some kind of authority.

"You think you´ll make it today, to my bosses lunch?"- Piper asked interrupting his line of thought.

"Ohh"- he murmured. He had completely forgotten the lunch. With the evaluations, the grading of homework's and final projects he had been nearly all day in the university and still had a pile of work to check.

"I'm not sure pipes, you know with the big test coming out and the evaluations, I still have a lot to grade and I don't want to get behind, but I will do my best."- He answered

"Well, that´s not a surprise we have barely see each other in this month"- she sighted and rolled her eyes now slightly annoyed.

"Piper I'm trying hard to keep the post, you know how difficult is to find a well-paid teacher job this days"- Jason responded a little bit irritated.

They have been having this discussion for days now; they didn't have _enough_ time to see each other, but still the wanted to maintain the apartment in Manhattan, the cars and all the other stuff. Sure a car was unnecessary in New York, but they had discovered that the monsters liked a lot the subway stations and public transport, so they stayed out of it.

"You know this is ridiculous, I'm all ready to use my bank account if you weren't so stubborn"- she snapped and her kaleidoscopic eyes turned a bit darker- "And you have your dad's money too"

Now he was pissed.

"Piper, you know that money is cursed and just a guilty present for not helping at all with the war"- his voice was now shaking. His father Jupiter had gave him a huge quantity of money after the war, as an apology of freaking out an closing Olympus without intervening in it causing a bloodshed of demigods- "And I don't want to abuse your dads help, he has already helped paying 6 months of the rent, what do you think that's says about me".

"That you are starting a career, cut you some slack Jason"- she said now somewhat kinder. Well, that shut him up; he calmed down, gulped his juice and leaned closed to piper. They continued to eat their breakfast in silence until there was a knock on the door.

"Mail, that's odd"- she said as she stud up.

Moments later she came back with a white envelope with golden ink.

"Look who sends it"- she handed me the letter.

The calligraphy was neat and kind of classic. The direction was from San Francisco. Jason opened the envelope and a picture came from it. It was a picture of the Seven and Nico in the Argo II, taken in our way back to Camp Jupiter after the war ended. They all looked so tired and devastated, but at the same time with an expression of relief. He had tried not to think of those moments or of the war at all, for years. He had learnt that if you tried to avoid those memories, the nightmares and the pain slowly disappeared, even if that meant forgetting some nice moments with his friends.

He gave the photo back to piper and started getting ready to leave for work.

"The message was from Hazel, she wants a reunion"- she said with a small voice- "I really miss our friends, Jason".

"Yeah"- he sighted- "I miss Leo"

"Maybe it is what we all need to finally close that chapter"- she continued- and you know… heal"

He walked out of the apartment, but hesitated and poked his head into the door.

"I will really try to make it to your lunch"

A tiny smile appeared in his face. "Thank you"- she said. And he left.


	3. Leo III

**Leo III**

**Leo woke up with the sun** sneaking through the curtains of his room. It was near 3 in the afternoon when he finally decided to get out of bed, growling, and to start making some coffee.

His apartment was a combination between a house, workshop and a bar. It was located in the penthouse of some luxury building on the center of Houston. Tools and wrenches were scattered across all the carpet along with some books and dirty socks, Leo walked carefully towards the kitchen trying not to step in anything important. He smiled imagining the speech _Sophia _or as he preferred to call her "_Doña chofis_"would give him if she saw the conditions of the room he was sleeping in, she was Leo's personal housekeeping. He would never have imagined to have a personal maid or to have an apartment like this at all, but sure his life had taken a turn.

He poured himself a hot cup of dark coffee and went to his tiny replica of a workshop/studio in the apartment to check the computer. The room was a huge tactile screen that held the controls of the whole floor; he had adjusted it to work as the engine room of the Argo II, so he could change the temperature, illumination and security from the same place. Suure his apartment resembled a smaller and homier like version of _the enterprise_, but this was his entire work of the past 10 years since he moved back to Texas. His workshops and the home operating system, that he named "Festus", were why he was in this luxury building and in the list of the 15 most promising young entrepreneurs of America.

A little before he left CHB, just after his 17 birthday, the rest of the seven have just moved out and started their new lives in college and working, only Piper and Jason had stayed. So in a melancholic afternoon and tired of being the third wheel… _again_ (He and Calypso never really worked out, her love towards him was just a very deep gratitude for getting her out of that cursed island) he came back here to Houston.

So he searched for whatever _Valdez_ family member remained here, very few actually just some aunts and their annoyingly cute cousins that now he freccuently baby sited, he decided that this was a great place to start his new life and finally settle down. He went to college, just for protocol really and to meet some _fine girls, _he graduated from Mechatronic engineer and started his workshops and intelligent house software's business. His work had really taken of well, he had never imagined been considered as "a genius with a great vision of future business and incredible human skills" he quoted from Forbes magazine, at first he just wanted to resemble his childhood life with his mom in a workshop in Texas.

A pop window in the screen interrupted his train of thoughts; he had a few of new messages from work and some pictures of his friends and him from the party of last night. He was going through some paperwork when _Festus_ announced the mail had arrived.

_Mail?,_ that was weird he never received physical mail, maybe his aunt had sent her something from her trip to Mexico.

He answered the door and saluted the smiley man.

"Hey, how are you Mr. Valdez I brought you your mail"- said the small and chubby baldheaded receptionist.

"Hey no need to be so formal _Carlos_, ¿_cómo están las cosas haya abajo?"_- he said.

"_Bien bien, todo tranquilo hasta un poco aburrido me atrevería a decir "_- he answered in fluent Spanish, he was half Mexican as himself.-"But where´s little _Esperanza_, I haven't seen her in a while"

"She´s on vacation with her mother, but she will be mine again in a week"- Leo said, a smile spreading across his face.

"Well, tell her to hurry because _Don gato_ is getting very grumpy without his daily petting"- Carlos continued with a smile.

Esperanza was what you would call mmm… a happy accident. She was the product of a tipsy night with a girl, Sonia, he had met in college. He had been on & off with her for a while. When she got pregnant he had offered her to get married, have a family and all that stuff (that he secretly always wanted). After all he was an honorable man, but she refused because of her starting career as an event organizer and left him a little devastated. So now they shared the time with Esperanza. He would prefer to have her with him all the time; the little girl that was almost a replica of him, she made him incredibly happy and he didn't felt completely alone anymore.

What?! You must be thinking. Leo Valdez can actually get a girl to like him and even have sex with him without being some kind of harassment, well … yeah. It seemed to be that puberty had just taken a little more time to strike him and now 10 years later and 40 cm taller, he was finally a ladies man. His characteristically curly hair had been tamed and his tan complexion was far from scrawny. The only thing that resembled the old Leo was the shape of his ears, his elfish ears, he had considered operating them but then he realized they were a part of him and he just had to accept it, even if it meant having nicknames like "Santa's helper".

After a little more of small talk, Carlos gave him the mail and returned downstairs. He went back to the studio and curiously opened the letter, not even bothering to read the envelope, a picture came from it. It was a photo of him and the rest of the seven on a movie night after the war had ended. He smiled at the memory. On the other side was an invitation from Hazel to have a reunion for good old time´s sake, in a month. He panicked a little.

He had considered returning to CHB to see how everybody was doing in cabin 9. But he thought it would be like digging up a lot of memories and pain, a lot of his friends and brothers had died in the Great War after all. Also his nightmare incidents had reduced from waking up in a pool of his pee every night to zero, so he decided to let CHB behind.

He thought of throwing the letter away and pretended it hadn't happened, but something in the bottom of his stomach didn't let him do. And he missed his friends, especially Pipes and Jason. So he answered the letter and hoped he had made the right decision.


End file.
